Post Malone

Austin Post, (born April 7, 1995) better known by his stage name Post Malone, is an American recording artist from Dallas, Texas. He first gained major recognition for his single "White Iverson" after releasing it on SoundCloud in February 2015. He is c...

Austin Post, (born April 7, 1995) better known by his stage name Post Malone, is an American recording artist from Dallas, Texas. He first gained major recognition for his single "White Iverson" after releasing it on SoundCloud in February 2015. He is currently signed with Republic Records, and has further released more music with the most popular recent song being "Too Young"

Early life

Post was born in Syracuse, New York. When he was 10, he and his family moved to Dallas, Texas. He was an avid sports fan while growing up. He enjoyed playing basketball and watching sports. His father was the Dallas Cowboys' Assistant Director of Food and Beverage, and this meant he was able to get free food and tickets to Dallas Cowboy games.

Post taught himself how to play the saxophone and was in a heavy metal band in high school. He credited his initial interest in learning guitar to the popular video game Guitar Hero. He first learned how to produce music through FL Studio. When he was 16, he started working on his first mixtape. He showed it to some of his classmates and it gained some popularity at his school. He credits his love for music to his father, who exposed him to many genres, including country music, while growing up and also his cousin Raj who exposed him to rap music at a young age. He often mentions his cousin who he used to watch basketball with from a young age but has lost touch with because of his new found fame.

Post attended and graduated from Grapevine High School He then enrolled in Tarrant County College but only attended for a few months.

Career breakthrough

After leaving college, Post moved from Dallas to Los Angeles with long time friend Jason Stokes (also known as Minecraft Universe), and lived with the popular YouTube gaming group TeamCrafted, and appeared in many of their YouTube videos, though several videos he participated in were later removed from the site. He later participated in a music group known as BLKCVRD, which consisted of Billie Gvtes, Jason Stokes, Post Malone and several more artists. He also met 1st and Rich of FKi Music, who helped him produce "White Iverson" and other songs. Post recorded the song two days after he wrote it. He thought of the name after getting braids in his hair, thinking he looked liked a "White Iverson", a reference to the professional basketball player, Allen Iverson. Upon completion in February 2015, it was uploaded to Post's SoundCloud account. Post Malone released the video for "White Iverson" on July 19, 2015, which has received over 69 million views since its initial release. After the initial hype of "White Iverson", Post released several other popular singles to his SoundCloud including "Too Young", "What's Up", and "Tear$" which all saw a similar level of popularity to the breakout hit. This group of songs quickly brought him attention from record labels, gaining over a million plays the month it was uploaded. In August 2015, he decided to sign with Republic Records. Since his breakthrough hit, Post has been working with a number of big name rappers such as 50 Cent, Young Thug, and having a song featuring himself play during Kanye West's fashion show Yeezy Season 2, which also featured Ty Dolla Sign.

Stage name

Although it is suggested that Post's stage name is a reference to the professional basketball player, Karl Malone, he has said otherwise. In an interview with The Breakfast Club, he explains "Well Post is my last name, and I just made Malone up."